Key points
- Hundreds of students and civil society groups protested in Jakarta and other Indonesian cities on Wednesday 28 October 2026, crowding the landmark Bundaran HI roundabout, Reuters and AFP reported.
- The five demands cover the environment, the economy, education, legal and governance reform, and human rights and democracy — led by a call to declare the forest fires a national disaster.
- Indonesia is suffering its worst forest fires and haze in 11 years, worsened by the El Niño weather pattern, Reuters reported, with respiratory illness rising and smoke reaching Malaysia and Singapore.
- Police said about 14,000 of its officers, as well as soldiers, had deployed; scuffles broke out where police and soldiers blocked some students, and the government's communications office said late on Wednesday it welcomed the students' input.
Hundreds of students and civil society groups protested in Jakarta and other Indonesian cities on Wednesday against President Prabowo Subianto's policies, including the government's handling of months of forest fires, Reuters reported. The main rally gathered at the landmark Hotel Indonesia roundabout, known as Bundaran HI, in central Jakarta. Read more: Thousands surround Portugal's parliament over housing crisis as MPs debate the 2027 budget
Reuters reported that protesters crowded the roundabout, some wearing gas masks and holding signs protesting over the fires and demanding the government designate the blazes as a national disaster. Some carried signs that read "If we burn, you burn with us", and many held up the three-finger salute adopted from the Hunger Games films by youth protest movements around the world. Other signs included photographs of the orangutan, which bears the brunt of the fires, and a cardboard cutout of Prabowo.
The key figures
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Police officers deployed, plus soldiers | About 14,000 | Police, via AFP |
| Worst forest fires and haze | In 11 years | Reuters |
| Demands put forward by the students | Five | BEM UI / SADAR committee |
| Planned rally point and time | Bundaran HI, 2:00 p.m. WIB | BEM UI |
| Other cities with student rallies | Makassar, Bandung | AsiaOne / Reuters |
| Government response | Welcomed input; prosecutions; aid sent | Government communications office, via Reuters |
Why students took to the streets
The protest was called by the University of Indonesia's student executive board, known as BEM UI, together with students from other campuses and civil society groups under a committee calling itself SADAR, meaning "aware" in Bahasa Indonesia. It was timed to coincide with Indonesia's Youth Pledge Day on 28 October, and the organisers said it was open to workers, farmers and other groups, not only students. The rally had been announced on 26 October, with Bundaran HI named as the gathering point for a 2:00 p.m. start, according to BEM UI's statement.
Hundreds of security personnel and armoured vehicles were visible in busy parts of central Jakarta on Wednesday morning, Reuters reported ahead of the rally, and police later said about 14,000 of its officers, as well as soldiers, had deployed to keep a lid on the demonstrations. Other students, including from the University of Indonesia, were blocked by dozens of police and military personnel, leading to some scuffles, Reuters reported, as protesters chanted "Revolution! Revolution!"
The fires are the core grievance. Worsened by the El Niño weather pattern that leaves peatland vulnerable to fires, Indonesia has been faced with its worst forest fires and resulting haze in 11 years, Reuters reported, increasing respiratory illnesses and polluting the air of neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore. Anggi Aurien, 28, had been wearing a gas mask for three hours at the landmark, protesting about the fires that have killed wildlife, Reuters reported. "Animals don't have a mind of their own. If we kill them, what's the difference between us and them?" she said. Ezra Al Barra, a student from the University of Padjadjaran, said the fires were "our collective anger", adding that students came from other regions outside Jakarta.
The action followed an earlier round of protests on 20 October, when students gathered in the Tugu Tani area of central Jakarta and presented the same five demands, and Greenpeace Indonesia activists scaled the Welcome Monument at Bundaran HI with banners linking the climate crisis to living costs. The students' other demands, beyond the disaster declaration, are stopping spending they call wasteful, such as the free meals scheme, lowering education costs, and eradicating corruption, collusion and nepotism.
What the government said
The government's communications office welcomed input from students in a statement late on Wednesday, Reuters reported, adding that it had prosecuted companies linked to the fires, sent aid to haze-stricken provinces, and would keep monitoring the fires. That response came after a day in which the protest's organisers said the action was meant to mark a "revolution that is being proclaimed", according to AFP.
Protester Sekar, 37, told AFP her "heart is shattered" by the plight of compatriots battling months of wildfires and haze while also contending with a weakening currency and higher prices. "I came here from home with the intention of protecting the students" who called the demonstration, she said. Students also rallied in Makassar, in South Sulawesi, and Bandung, in West Java, with similar demands, according to AsiaOne, with dozens of them on motorbikes filling the main roads.
What happens next
Three things will decide where this goes next: whether the government declares the fires a national disaster, as the students demand; whether the fires and haze ease or worsen in the coming weeks; and whether the SADAR committee calls further mobilisations on the scale of Wednesday's rally. Europe Unfolded will report the disaster-declaration decision, and any official response to the other demands, when they are confirmed, not the rumours that precede them.
Updates & corrections
Published 28 October 2026.
No updates or corrections have been made to this article since publication.
Sources
- Reuters, 28 October 2026, on hundreds protesting in Jakarta and other cities, the Bundaran HI roundabout, gas masks, signs, scuffles and the government's statement: reuters.com
- Reuters, 28 October 2026, on the security deployment ahead of the rally, the students' demands and the planned Bundaran HI gathering: reuters.com
- AFP, via Malay Mail, 28 October 2026, on hundreds gathering in central Jakarta, about 14,000 officers and soldiers deployed, and the SADAR committee: malaymail.com
- AsiaOne, 28 October 2026, on student rallies in Makassar and Bandung with similar demands: asiaone.com
- Gutzy Asia, 27 October 2026, on BEM UI's announcement, the 2:00 p.m. Bundaran HI gathering point, Youth Pledge Day and the five demands: gutzy.asia